Conservatives Are Purposely Making Their Cars Spew Black Smoke To Protest Obama And Environmentalists

Pickup trucks
customized to spew black smoke into the air are quickly becoming
the newest weapon in the culture wars.

"Coal Rollers" are diesel trucks modified with chimneys and
equipment that can force extra fuel into the engine causing dark
black smoke to pour out of the chimney stacks. These
modifications are not new, but as Slate's Dave Weigel
pointed out on Thursday, "rolling coal" has begun to take on
a political dimension with pickup drivers increasingly viewing
their smokestacks as a form of protest against environmentalists
and Obama administration emissions regulations.

"I run into a lot of people that really don't like Obama at all,"
the salesperson said. "If he's into the environment, if he's into
this or that, we're not. I hear a lot of that. To get a single
stack on my truck-that's my way of giving them the finger. You
want clean air and a tiny carbon footprint? Well, screw you."

Facebook

As coal rollers
have become a form of conservative protest, their popularity
seems to be exploding. Vocativ found Facebook pages dedicated to
the phenomenon have
about 16,000 followers and over 100,000 rolling coal posts
have appeared on Instagram and Tumblr. According to Google
Trends, there were virtually no internet searches for "rolling
coal" prior to February 2011. Since then, search volume for the
term has increased
over 700%.

With this explosion in online attention, the battles between coal
rollers and their environmentalist enemies are playing out in
social media pages, Youtube videos and internet comment sections.
Many of the rolling coal Facebook pages feature memes (like the
one pictured on the right) that mock hybrid drivers and liberals.
Coal rollers have also posted videos showing their trucks
blasting more environmentally efficient cars with smoke.

Opponents of the practice have also taken to the internet. Weigel
noted "a
mid-June surge of comments" from progressives attacking coal
rolling social media pages in the wake of the Vocativ article. In
2012, one outraged YouTube user posted a video entitled "Victim Of Coal
Rolling" that showed a pickup shooting fumes at his car.

"Blow your smoke at me you son of a bitch," the driver says in
the video.

Though the clip seemed designed as a criticism of coal rollers,
it attracted a slew of comments from people who were clearly on
the side of the pickup driver.

"What a loser you are, ain't nothing wrong with rolling some
confederate coal," one person replied.

"Stupid ricers. what were you gonna do you bitch?" another said.

Check out some videos of coal rollers hitting the road and
blasting other motorists below.